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... No Progress :-(

Ah... those weeks that fly by like one long, long day. There's been a lot of those lately.

Even if I had a couple of nice ideas for April's fools, I couldn't sit down and actually produce something cooler than the last two.

Anyway... About the project...

When I saw the terrible news about Sonic 2 HD, I couldn't stop thinking: "Damn! That project was awesome... I wish I get to finish mine while I still have free time".

This whole month I wasn't able to get the time, and in some cases the motivation, to even open Game Maker.

That happened a lot before, it happens to all of us at certain points of our own creations. But this time I asked myself: "What if this happens all the time from now on?, What if the project dies, and I finally deny other game designers a chance to finish it?, Why am I thinking these questions in English instead of Spanish?".

Right now I'm positive I can finish the game. But, as life showed me a couple of times, anything can happen. The thing is, in the worst case scenario, whatever it might be, I don't want to leave a last impression of the project based on Confrontation, or the Demo.

So, I was thinking on releasing at least another demo, sometime in the not-so-distant future, so you can enjoy a little more of the game, and those playing for the first time won't be instantly frustrated by the first Alpha.

The idea is to release some content (finished and 100% playable) every once in a while. The first demo was extremely useful for gameplay balancing, and I'm sure future demos will help the development process a lot.

As always, you're invited to share your thoughts and questions about the project either here or at the forum.

Have a good weekend.

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Anonymous said…

yourDont't Give UP!!!! When i first saw this blog I restored my faith in humanity, due to the fact that nintendo never did a remake of this game(hoping they would like with zero mission). If you stop you'll regret it greatly laterThis has happened to me before.Take a little break but don't let laziness get to you.

You got supporters here, buddy. I've been following this blog religiously for over 3 years now. Don't give up. I don't want to see another "Metroid SR388" happen. Come on doc, prescribe us some good Metroid.

Hey, I've been checking back here every now and then, and when I see an update it really brightens my day. To some, this project would seem so trivial, but to me, and countless other fans of the Metroid series and your work, it means a lot.I'm not going to tell you that you'd better finish this project. I just want to tell you that you really are doing something special. By working on this, you're bringing happiness to more people than most individuals can in their lifetime.Whether you finish this project or not - and I'm very confident in your abilities - let me speak for everyone who keeps returning here when I say that we appreciate all of the work that you're doing for us. The love you have for this is evident in your work, and I hope that we fans can reciprocate that same passion.

I am a real fun of metroid series. More than a year ago I found this blog and I really liked the idea. It reminded me of good old times and great old games. When I played the demo, I saw a real metroid game. It had a spirit of the series. And now I am waiting for you to complete the full game. So don't give up, man.

Ey Dr., Thane herePlease don't think like this: "Damn..! i could not finish the project.., oh well, at least i released some demos, mision accomplished" It will only break the hearts of many gamers that want to see the project finished :C

Hmmm...odd 3 hours and nobody else has posted,on previous post it only took 1 hour or so....Anyway keep at it, good luck!P.S. i'm the same guy as before,and I check your blog everyday even though I know you wait a month to report.

Ah ha! So, like episodic gaming, sort of? You intend on slowly releasing more and more of the game to cover for these recent changes in life until it's "done?"

Hmm. Not sure how well I like that idea, but I -do- like the notion of turning your loyal if somewhat small fanbase here into beta testers. As always, we're happy to help push this project along in any way we can. Throw stuff our way, we'll let you know our thoughts and hopefully motivate you to edge your way across that finish line.

Well, at least what you're working with is a Nintendo franchise. Sonic is Sega's. I hear Nintendo is more chillax on these matters, so as long as you don't try to make money out of it, and don't make it bad or disrespectful in some way (and we know THAT is already off the table), then I think they probably will leave AM2R alone. =)

The one advantage you have over the Sonic 2 HD project is that you (and you alone) can decide if and when your project finishes. You are not depending on other people to pull their weight as well (and certainly not using another person's engine to which they can revoke it from you at any time) and therefore the same scenario can never occur with AM2R.

I am certainly not suggesting that team projects are all "bad" (quite the contrary since more people means extra able bodies to work on the project). However, solo projects do have their advantages too. I really like your approach of letting others finish your work should you not be able to sometime in the future. When many of these kinds of end, the source is lost forever and the main developer disappears without a trace.

As a father of 4, accountant, and developer/gamer on my free time; I can understand what you mean and maybe I can share a little insight.

When things get too busy and I don't have time for my hobbies, I'll step away from them and recharge. There is nothing wrong with taking a break and really, you just need to be aware of how much time you can step away for without losing interest yourself. The way I always handled this was I'd set aside a small pocket of time each week just to keep me "fresh" (knowing where all my resources are etc). Usually this was Sunday night about an hour before bed so that I really didn't have any other pressing matters. You'll obviously need to find a time that's best for you.

What I find this does is that some weeks I'd just leave my projects as is and go about my week. But some weeks, I would be completely inspired to continue and a lot of my free resources in the following week would go towards a project.

It's really easy to justify spending one hour a week - even if you know you might not get anything worthwhile done and it keeps you "connected". That connection really helps keep the "will it just die?" concern to a minimum and lets you fully focus on the things in life that really matter at that time.

Anyways, I wish you all the best and hope this helped you in at least a little way. Anyone who's developed as a hobby has hit this kind of wall and it's completely normal. Don't worry about the project - just stay connected and if you really enjoy doing it, your desire to invest more time will come back naturally.

I´ve been following this project for more than 3 years now. Nowadays, I´m not even a metroid/nintendo fan anymore, for example, I didn´t even play Metroid Other M.

However, I´m still keeping an eye every week or so on your blog to check out if you made some progress.

And it´s just because I love the amount of effort and hard work you put in this to happen, and how you´ve been struggling through difficulties to complete this. I want to play this game just because of what it represents. No fucking joke.

So you are telling me you are going to just throw it up after 6-7 some years of work??

Screw that! You know you have to finish this, dont waste all the effort you already put into it

I can understand perfectly well what you are going through right now. As someone who has been working on a huge non-Metroid related project for nearly two years, I realize that there will always be times when you don't have motivation. But in the end, so long as you can keep yourself invested in what you started, you simply won't allow yourself to abandon what you've already put so much into. Perhaps seeing more community feedback to your work will give you the encouragement to enter another period of progress, as that often happens for me. Though I'd rather wait for the final product, releasing more demos/videos would certainly help keep both you and the community interested. Just don't sweat these stagnant times.

Perhaps Doc could look into somehow doing episodic releases, kind of like Back to the Future or the recent Walking Dead game. Give us a chance to explore all of SR388 piece-by-piece. This will give him time to polish up areas that may not yet be finished while giving us the chance to continue playing this amazing game. Then, when everything is polished up and done, he can release the whole game as one complete set, from start to finish.

It's okay if you have to take a break, but please don't give up on the project! You can keep going knowing that we are supporting you here. We all appreciate all the work amd time you've put into this game

Don´t Give up. I belive in you to complete the game, your game is more amazing than S2HD. I will be help you to complete the game, my name is Rosrigo and i don't give up when i benniging a proyect: AMFM (another metroid first mission) is my first proyect in game maker and i don't given up in this proyect, I will help you, if you're interested in my help, please contact: rodrycont1997@gmail.com and we will come together to complete the project AM2R. I believe in you, DoctorM64.

Hello. I've been viewing the progress of AM2R for a long time, and I'll say this: I don't care about a demo. Whatever happens, I'll have full faith in you.

You don't need to force yourself to make a demo if that'll take time away from the full version. We are fans, and as fans, we appreciate everything you've done for us and more. Thanks for thinking about us and asking for our thoughts, but I'm sure that you'll do what's right for the community.

Hey Doc. Long time supporter here following for 3 years or so. I think releasing progressive demos would be very beneficial to your project and for those of us who've been following. I think we had talked once about beta testing.I also understand what it means to have a project that you want to work on but at times you still have responsibilities and priorities.

You are doing an amazing job at keeping this project alive! Just keep it going. I've been following this blog for about 4 years already. A lot has happened since then. You have made tremendous leaps and bounds to get where you are now, you can't stop now or anytime past this point. That demo you released was AMAZING! I've been watching this project because I want to do something like this someday when I get out of college in 4 years. That way I know a bunch of programming languages and I could do all the scripting.

No matter what happens though, you will always be an inspiration to me DrM64! I keep forgetting your real name but hell, if I knew you in person, I'd still call you by that alias! XDKeep up the good work! EVERYONE IS COUNTING ON YOU FOR THIS MASTERPIECE!

Please Don't give up. Yeah I feel you man, I also had my share of procrastination with my personal work as well. But it's really a bad thing to let it take over your routine. And i'm sorry about the Sonic 2 thing but don't let it bum you out too much. You've accomplished a lot. You have to have faith that things will go well and that you control your own destiny of your work and projects. You can't let those negative thoughts or a few bad instances tell you otherwise. So I believe in you man, We all believe in you...

Hey Doc, as you will See, now that you have a Child Live Plays often Strange Things up, and there are Always Problems, with so much Stuff in Life, youll get Trough it like everyone, sometimes it seems Impossibel.Like a Huge Mountain, but walk the Way, you will be Happy someday, again !

Im a Metroid Fand since the First Hous and i Follow Your Project for Many Years now.

Im sure you find a kind of soloution that works out, we got Time here.If you really want to drop it, drop it, your Choice ! Don´t go with this "Expectaion Stuff"

You are Yourself After all, Thats all what counts.

Of Course i try to Say Dont give it up That Easy, but keep in Mind its Your Life.

I am aspiring to become an indie game developer. I am currently in the process of procrastinating my way to that point, you are one of the few blogs that I actually follow. This is because I see as a game developer and I want you to succeed. My own blog and process has been a failure up until now and I am in the process of starting things back up again. I have seen so many projects fail or go dark lately and I honestly feel as though yours is capable of succeeding. Your progress gave me some hope in my own.

Besides your personal time in the real world, you got to make the best of your free time and at least make some what of a progress! You have gotten tons of support from artists with such beautiful and original sprites and they continue to do so for whatever your need is. With what you have claimed about a lot of games (other than fan made) nowadays just don't came to the light of day? That is because they've lost hope in making their fantasy into a reality... and if you don't finish Project AM2R then you are admitting defeat and you will never live up to those ranks as Nintendo's. You have to keep positive and never give in, hell you were even interviewed for a Nintendo magazine issue, that's very honorable! There are people out there even today at young of age who would read that article and think "Wow... that guy must be really dedicated into his work, I hope that I can became as much as hard worker like him!" those are dreams being heard. You are fully aware of the possibility that no one has faith in anyone anymore, but you HAVE to make a difference and show not only the internet but the entire world that dreams can be made! I have as much belief that you can finish this yet-to-be masterpiece and make the world along with your very life proud of yourself! I believe in you.

How long have you been working on this now? Three years? Four years? It's been a huge project and a huge part of your life. Probably far bigger than you ever imagined it would have been at first. Had you known up front how much time it would have taken, you might have even reconsidered starting in the first place. And on top of all of that, you're doing it all for free and won't be making a dime from it.

You're an amazing person to have come this far, but giving up now would be unthinkable. You've invested too much time and effort into this to simply let it stagnate and die. I've worked on multi-year hobby projects myself, and I definitely know the pain you're going through. It happens near the end of a long project, when the end is finally in sight, but you're totally burned out and have lost the will to keep going. Here's some advice I can offer from my experiences...

Take a break, but don't lose interest. The break should last a month or two, or three--enough time to distance yourself from the project and feel refreshed. However, every week or two just startup your game and admire how far you've come. Don't open GameMaker. Don't look at a single line of code. Just admire everything you've accomplished and and let the weight of how far you've come set in. Because you have come a long, long way, and there's a TON of work to be proud of there. Relish it, because you really do deserve it.

Once you feel distant enough from the project and refreshed, just take a step back and think about what you need to do still. Maybe make a list of the tasks that are still outstanding, come up with a plan and decide what to start working on next. Open up GameMaker one night and get reacquainted with everything, then follow your plan and start checking things off the list.

Anyone that's been there will tell you that the last stretch of a project is by far the most difficult to get through. But you've gotta dig down deep and find the will to get across the finish line. It's just a little further!

I hope you can find some time and motivation again, even though it can be difficult!I have a question though. Do you have some aquaintance who could test the games on Linux OSes? I tried the demos and they all wouldn't start in Wine due to some awkward error.

This is not a bad idea. Advice i've heard in business is "release early and often". Now, that doesn't generally work for games, where people expect something polished out the gate, but in this case, something is definitely better than nothing, and i think people like to see the incremental progress of fan games.

There's also always the chance that you could be incapacitated, leaving your work unavailable to anybody, unexpectedly. Hope for the best, but plan for the worst.

Don't give up guy.I'm from Brasil and i'm loving your work.I like the demo and confrontation and i check your website periodically to see if your project is done.God bless you!And sorry for my bad english =P.

Don't Give up you have come to far to quit. I have been following this blog for about a year now. And every time i see an update i get excited. This blog gives me something to look forward to. Without something to look forward to i would fall apart.

Hey, I completely understand you. I'm making a game too, and I'm trying to polish my skills and putting alot of effort there.But my real life absorbs a lot of time and I don't complain about it because I love it.

This is just my advice as an indie game designer, from one to another. I feel as though I am in no place to offer commentary to someone as respected as you, but I figure it can't hurt.

The one thing I can say about periodic demos is that the constant user feedback will help greatly with your motivation and positivity towards the project. It's tough going through months on end without any enthusiastic players to show their love and support.

Of course, you have other obligations and priorities that affect the time you have to work on the game, but a little love and feedback from players along the way might really help you take advantage of the free time you do have.

Good luck with everything, Doc! You have made and continue to make a lot of people happy, and no matter what, that counts for a lot!

You are a role model for all of use indie game developers.I tip my hat to you, and I encourage you to take a breather for yourself if need be.I personally want to play your game, I would pay money for it, if that were legally feasible.

But you do not owe use anything, in fact, if anybody is owing, it us. We owe you a thank you!

Doc, I understand your frustrations, I really do. If you need some time off, just tell us and we'll gladly wait for you to get things in order. If you want to release the project in parts, that'd be pretty cool too. You could release an area at a time and whenever we finish one, just put a "To be continued" after it, like an episodic kind of thing. Whatever you decide, we'll support you with it.

You are the only one left that can bring to the people the nostagic and the amazing experience of Metroid 2D series.Neither nintendo neither any other freelancer.You were one of the few that managed to put up managable goals and get things done.You are litery the only hope for metroid to survive.

Doc, I've been following your project since I was in high high school. You're doing something that Nintendo refuses to do, and that's completely revamping Metroid II. You've done a better job with the game than they ever possibly could. I understand how you feel, but ask yourself this: Are you really willing let all those years of work on the game go to waste? We're not asking you to rush and finish the game, we're just asking that you don't give up on it. Take a break from the project to recharge yourself if you have to, but please don't give up.

Never commented before, but I have to now. You are doing awesome work. I'm tired of these FPS Metroid games, they ruined the franchise for me. You're game gives me a glimmer of hope that I can once again enjoy a Metroid game. Please! Do not feel rushed, this is YOUR project. Take your time, and create your perfect game. I will be waiting no matter how long. :)

On the long you'll regret giving up. I've regreted leaving many things and the projects weren't even that big. I can't imagine someone giving up on something like this. This has a lot of followers, trust me. My friends and my friend's friends are all waiting for the day that I tell them that this project is released. This is more than a remake, after playing the demo I found that you could capture the ambience and the concept far better than nintendo did with it's latest release.

Plus, I've been visiting this blog more than twice every week for some years, I've played all the demos several times, and I've visited the forums and spent a long time there. That's a lot of time I spent on your game, I can't imagine the time and work you've spent there. Finishing the game will definitely be worth it, no matter how fast going through it is.

Even with your demo you have created something amazing. I have not gotten this into a game in years. I haven't even been able to sit and play anything for more than 2 minutes before I started and finished this demo. I cannot imagine how much work this must take, but know that you have a large number of supporters. You have restored my faith in gaming.

Even with your demo you have created something amazing. I have not gotten this into a game in years. I haven't even been able to sit and play anything for more than 2 minutes before I started and finished this demo. I cannot imagine how much work this must take, but know that you have a large number of supporters. You have restored my faith in gaming.

Just wanted to throw out some words of encouragement in order for you to continue doing what you are doing.

You are truly a blessing to the community at large for undertaking this project, and you have tons of support behind you. I understand that we all need to walk away from our projects from time to time to take care of other projects and real life matters. But whatever you do, please don't give up!

I have been following this project for years now, and have pretty much lost interest in the lackluster Metroid games Nintendo seems intent on shoving down our throats lately. This is the only Metroid project of late I truly care about, because this is the game that is screaming out to be remade. Nintendo has made it all too obvious they don't care about what fans of their games want. You do!

Whatever help is needed, anything we as a community can do to encourage this project to completion, please let us know. No level of help is off the table, whatever it takes.

Take care, and keep chiseling away at what has the potential to easily become the best Metroid game I've ever played. Cheers!

I´m a big metroid fan and I´ve been reading every single post on your blog. That means I´ve been looking forward to play this remake for like three years maybe? Don´t make me been longing in vain for all these years.

Sure the tech demo and the demo is very nice, but I want a full game.

Still though, this is not about what I´ve want.. You got a personal life too. I hope your personal problems gets solved and you find more free time to spare on your project.

You got my best wishes and I hope you doesn´t throw this whole project away.

Everyone get has doubts with what they do at some point, the trick is to focus on what's on the other side and push through the hurdles in the way (life loves throwing hurdles at people).

Don't give up I've seen so many positive articles on the way regarding am2r it's clear to see allot of people are waiting for and hoping for am2r to be completed, as am I.

Don't let all you hardwork, time and effort be in for nothing, if you still have doubts google search your self or am2r to see all the good things people are saying. You owe it to your self, and when you are done you can say I did this and be proud.

The whole community is behind you, you can do it.

;)

You don't owe us anything and we are all great full for your time and effort.

There should be more people out there like you :)

So carry on with your head held high.

Keep up the good work and rest easy.

Burn outs happen to everyone, so take some time and then you be fine, don't give up.

Yea ur man u ma have moments wen u want to give it a break but procrastinating on an amazing project like can give u a few or more boos lol dats not cool but dnt give up man no matter da issue bcuz i played it nd i was like gotta play the official game so cnt wait till u release it bro nd gud luck

Hello Doc! I'm following your work since the day that I saw your Blog for the first time, in the beggining of 2011. This project will be like a salvation for all the Metroid fans that wanted to see a great remake for Metroid: Samus's Return. You are making a great work, and I beg you: Keep this project alive! Don't give up, until this is completed! You have my full support! You are a genius, man!

P.S.: First Of all, sorry for my bad english. I'm from Brazil, and I don't speak english very well. Anyway, I have a Blog. There, I make reviews of various game of all the generations. When your project is completed, I want to ask you permission to make a review of the game, because I really love Metroid! What do you think about it?

NEVER GIVE THE PROJECT UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This priject is way to kool for it to end. And don't forget when your done with the project, you will be remembered forever and you wont have to touch the project again.

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